Heavy Metal & Marginalisation: Is New Zealand metal RACIST? Some thoughts from a die-hard metalhead.

Heavy Metal & Marginalisation: Is New Zealand metal RACIST?
Some thoughts from a die-hard metal-head \m/.

All white!

You guessed it!

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No surprises... all white!

White again...

Despite being a self-proclaimed lifetime, die-hard fan of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, and maybe somewhat knowledgeable, I had never thought to give much thought about my favourite sub-genre of Heavy Metal – Folk Metal, being, to a certain extent, racist. As a form of leisure, catharsis, joy and passion I can forgive myself for not questioning that part of what constitutes Folk Metal’s status as a leisure form could mean that it is also a bearer of racist ideologies. Things did get a bit imperial, though. When an article submission authored by Karl Spracklen from Leeds Beckett University reached metalsucks.com in November last year, declaring Folk Metal in part as racist, I wilfully turned a blind eye to it. In a Facebook rant I passed it off defensively as an article that probably just confirms that there truly exists bored and out of touch academics who get payed to pick holes in what is a fun, harmless and beer induced, sword wielding, Christian slaying, Viking raiding, victorious and phantastic Heavy Metal subgenre. My rant pulled the wool over the eyes of naïve and apathetic metal fans, myself included, as to what is a valid critique of Folk Metal, and partly extinguished the scent of something actually worth thinking about and acknowledging. If Metallers care about historical authenticity, human beings and ultimately our passion for Heavy Metal itself, we should care, or at least be informed of some of the criticisms and research that brings to like some of the issues that Heavy Metal may exhibit. 

In what follows, I will briefly summarise Karl Spracklen’s article, “ ‘To Holmgard…and Beyond’: Folk Metal Fantasies and Hegemonic White Masculinities,” that was submitted to “Metal and Marginalisation: Gender, Race, Class and other Implications for Hard Rock and Metal,” special issue. I will then have some thoughts about how Spracklen’s argument about the identification racism in European Folk Metal bands relates to my experiences of being a white member of the Auckland Heavy Metal Community as well as some thoughts about the creation and consumption of folk metal in New Zealand. The crux of S Spracklen’s argument is that European Folk Metal (and arguably Folk Metal from other continents, racial and ethnic backgrounds) is not “easily dismissed as a fantasy space for young, white European men left behind by postmodernity, post-colonialism and a rearrangement of the gender order. “ It is rather, according to Spracklen, a form of leisure central to the continuous construction of instrumental whiteness and hegemonic masculinity. Spracklen argues that Folk Metal involves a reverence of a fantasy past that involves the worship of monocultural and monoracial patriarchal white men. Here is a summary of Spracklen’s issues with European Folk Metal:

-       It normalises neo-liberalism

-       Normalises hegemonic masculinity and instrumental whiteness

-       Folk Metal as a leisure form creates a sense of identity and belonging, at the same time owning a structure of subjugation.

-       Perpetuates racial stereotypes and racial hierarchies

Specifically, here is the core syllogism that Spracklen follows:

-       Folk Metal does this by operating on the pretence that bands are drawing on facts from the past to make music that is “authentic and natural.”

-       It ignores the reality of the complex history of Europe and the mixture of racial identities

-       Black people are thus left out of such discourses, as folk metal sells the idea of white racial purity through romantic and reductive readings of history.

I was initially dubious of Spracklen’s argument here, upon getting through halfway through his article. I changed my mind when he reached semiotic analysis of case study folk metal bands. I am a fan of every single one of the bands Spracklen used as a case study. Spracklen analysed lyrics, magazine articles and internet discussion boards about Folk Metal bands Turisas (Finland), Tyr (Faeroe Islands), Eluveitie (Switzerland) and Cruachan (Ireland).

Spracklen correctly concludes that Folk Metal, wether seriously or wether out of trying to join a bandwagon, try to identify with a folk culture that apparently existed before modern times. I personally noted, along with Spracklen, that the folk culture of these European Folk Metal bands are not racially diverse. They are pure white, burley men dressed as vikings, warriors and clansmen. Spracklen identifies them as monocultural and monoracial in their lyrical analysis, their image and fandom. I noted that these bands seem to try to provide meaning and substance to their fans through the myth that the past was better, full of honour and glory, and we hear stories about the past.

The issue is that these bands do not explore the complex issues of identity and the sense of belonging. As a listener of thousands of folk metal songs there are certainly elements that the narratives and lyrics involve these boundaries of geographic set by race and nations. Ofcourse, as a white male, short and burly, long hair I identified with this imaginary pure white origin.  Seeing Korpiklaani (another folk metal band) live at the Kings Arms in 2014 was an amazing experience. And the idea that it has elements of instrumental racism never occurred. Why should it, when I have my arm round someone I have never met before, dancing along, drinking horn in one hand, having a merry old time? 

Hold the Heather Hammer High - can anyone hold it? 

In fact, Spracklen acknowledges this. He agrees that folk metal is fun to listen too, with powerful songs and performances (fuckin’ aye there is!), with a visceral pleasure that can be shared by men and women, of any ethnicity.

So there seems to be a paradox?

How is it that in my experience with folk metal bands touring in New Zealand (and in non folk metal local NZ bands) and looking at the non-white fans on you tube enjoying folk metal in Europe that it can leave non-whiles feeling left out? I think what Spracklen is getting at is valid, despite this paradox. Why is it the case that folk-metal has to reduce and romanticise the past to involve just whiteness? Even if people from all racial and ethic battles enjoy the music, there is a problem when on the surface, the lyrics and imagery falsely represents the complex racial histories of the folk past.

I don’t think that there is overt racism in NZ metal. Spracklen argues there is none in Europe either. I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with the romanticised fantasies involved in folk-metal. I am aware that a lot of it is bullshit – I like history and authenticity. History is built up of facts arranged in a large canvas of subjectivities. But its built upon facts. When folk metal gets the facts wrong it is worth acknowledging, despite people from all races enjoying the collective mosh-pit of drunken awesomeness and brotherhood. Folk-metal is fun because in my experience, anyone can engage in it. But I would hate to think black people, or non-whites are feeling left out. That is not what heavy-metal is supposed to be about. You love the distortion, you live the bagpipes and flutes, you live the windmilling, leather and denim, the beer, the brotherhood, and you are welcome in my books, no matter where you come from.

And there would be nothing better than a good sounding folk metal band that addresses the complexities of racial identities that embody globalisation and folk history. Folk metal can be decent metal, and it can be valued because it is not fantasy. It can hold truth and be valued on that ground because truth is something to be valued in its own right.